Supreme Court of India(SCI) stays execution of Yakub Memon Monday June 02,2014

The Supreme Court of india(SCI)on Monday June 02,2014 stayed the execution of death row convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

Yakub Memon is the brother of Ibrahim Memon, better known as Tiger Memon, the alleged mastermind and the prime accused who is absconding.

A bench of Justices J S Khehar and C Nagppan issued notices to the Centre, Supreme Court Registry and others on Memon’s petition that, among various grounds, has also challenged the practice of deciding review petitions in chamber hearing. The bench ordered status quo on Memon’s petition and decided to hear it with a similar petition filed by a death row convict in the Red Fort attack case.

The SC had in April 2014 admitted for hearing a petition by Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Mohd Arif alias Ashfaq, who was convicted in the 2000 Red Fort attack case, in which three people, including two Army personnel, were killed.

Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Mohd Arif alias Ashfaq’s petition was referred to a Constitution bench to decide if the review of death penalty cases warranted open court hearings.

 The Constitution bench also needs to decide whether a person can suffer two alternate sentences consecutively and if it’s justified to award a higher punishment after suffering a protracted jail term during the trial and appeals.

President Pranab Mukherjee has recently rejected the mercy petition of Memon and the decision was left to the Maharashtra government for fixing the execution date.